1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image printing system, an image printing method, and an image printing program wherein the printing of an image is carried out by using the Internet.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-370063, filed Dec. 20, 2002, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, the capacities of color printers have been dramatically improved, and at the same time, prices have declined. Thus, a user can purchase a color printer and print images that he has produced himself by using the color printer at a lower cost than requesting printed material from a professional printer.
However, in this case, there is the problem that for a non-professional user the production of the desired printed material is difficult. There are a variety of choices of printing environment, material used for in the printed material (photographic images, illustrations and the like), character fonts, editing, types of colors and the like, and for the user side to carry out all the layout production for these, heavy burdens are placed on the operator who carries out layout production and the computer system that is used. In particular, in the editing of image data, heavy processing steps become necessary, for example, to expand completely the compressed image data that represents the material to be used.
In order to solve this type of problem, a system has been proposed wherein an environment is built in which the layout operation is easily carried out using the image desired by the user, and an image that has been edited according to the layout operation is delivered to the user (refer to Citation 1, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2002-244827). This system executes on the client a user editing application delivered by the server depending on the layout operation request from the client, and displays a screen for reading new image information not stored on the server. When the layout operation using the image data supplied from the server and the new image data is carried out, the image editing is carried out on the server based on the operation content, and this resulting edited image is delivered to the client.
In the current situation, the opportunities for using a color printer purchased by an individual are almost completely limited to printing New Year greeting cards and Christmas cards. At the same time, for the manufactures that make and sell the color printers, there is a need to expand the market for sales of consumable goods by increasing the opportunities for producing printed material and increasing the utilization of color printers purchased by individuals.
However, while the manufactures that make and sell color printers can provide systems such as the one disclosed in Citation 1 that can easily produce printed materials, there are limits to providing all the various types of content that will satisfy the needs of the users. At the same time, in recent years the Internet has been used to promote sales of products such as toys and food. The delivery content for introducing products has become widespread, and it is possible to introduce products with a high efficiency by having this content printed on the printers of individual users. However, for the manufacturers of toys, food and the like, there is the problem that carrying out production of printed material having a high quality requires much labor and cost.
In consideration of the problems described above, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image printing system, an image printing method, and an image printing program that increases the rate of utilization of printers, and at the same time makes possible carrying out highly efficient product introductions easily.